Spontaneous emission patterns of electric and magnetic dipoles on different metallic surfaces and a hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) surface were simulated using the dyadic Green’s function technique. The theoretical approach was verified by experimental results obtained by measuring angular-dependent emission spectra of europium ions on top of different films. The results show the modified behavior of electric and magnetic dipoles on metallic and HMM surfaces. The results of numerical calculations agree well with experimental data.